This invention pertains to methods for treating atrial tachyarrhythmias. In particular, the invention relates to an apparatus and method for delivering shock therapy to terminate atrial fibrillation.
Tachyarrhythmias are abnormal heart rhythms characterized by a rapid heart rate, typically expressed in units of beats per minute (bpm). They can occur in either chamber of the heart (i.e., ventricles or atria) or both. Examples of tachyarrhythmias include sinus tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation (VF), atrial tachycardia, and atrial fibrillation (AF). Tachycardia is characterized by a rapid rate, either due to an ectopic excitatory focus or abnormal excitation by normal pacemaker tissue. Fibrillation occurs when the chamber depolarizes in a chaotic fashion with abnormal depolarization waveforms as reflected by an EKG.
An electrical shock applied to a heart chamber (i.e., defibrillation or cardioversion) can be used to terminate most tachyarrhythmias by depolarizing excitable myocardium, which thereby prolongs refractoriness, interrupts reentrant circuits, and discharges excitatory foci. Implantable cardioverter/defibrillators (ICDs) provide this kind of therapy by delivering a shock pulse to the heart when fibrillation is detected by the device. An ICD is a computerized device containing a pulse generator that is usually implanted into the chest or abdominal wall. Electrodes connected by leads to the ICD are placed on the heart, or passed transvenously into the heart, to sense cardiac activity and to conduct the shock pulses from the pulse generator. ICDs can be designed to treat either atrial or ventricular tachyarrhythmias, or both, and may also incorporate cardiac pacing functionality.
The most dangerous tachyarrhythmias are ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, and ICDs have most commonly been applied in the treatment of those. conditions. ICDs are also capable, however, of detecting atrial tachyarrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, and delivering a shock pulse to the atria in order to terminate the arrhythmia. Although not immediately life-threatening, it is important to treat atrial fibrillation for several reasons. First, atrial fibrillation is associated with a loss of atrio-ventricular synchrony which can be hemodynamically compromising and cause such symptoms as dyspnea, fatigue, vertigo, and angina. Atrial fibrillation can also predispose to strokes resulting from emboli forming in the left atrium. Although drug therapy and/or in-hospital cardioversion are acceptable treatment modalities for atrial fibrillation, ICDs configured to treat atrial fibrillation offer a number of advantages to certain patients, including convenience and greater efficacy.
As aforesaid, an ICD terminates atrial fibrillation by delivering a shock pulse to electrodes disposed in or near the atria. The resulting depolarization also spreads to the ventricles, however, and there is a risk that such an atrial shock pulse can actually induce ventricular fibrillation, a condition much worse than atrial fibrillation. To lessen this risk, current ICDs delay delivering an atrial shock pulse until the intrinsic ventricular rhythm is below a specified maximum rate and then deliver the shock synchronously with a sensed ventricular depolarization (i.e., an R wave). That is, an Rxe2x80x94R interval, which is the time between a presently sensed R wave and the preceding R wave, is measured. If the Rxe2x80x94R interval is above a specified minimum value, the interval is considered shockable and the atrial defibrillation shock pulse is delivered.
If the ventricular rhythm does not slow to a safe rate in a short time, however, the delay in delivering atrial defibrillation therapy may be deleterious to the patient. In addition, a particular subset of patients have spontaneous ventricular rhythms during atrial fibrillation that may remain too rapid to ever safely deliver an atrial defibrillation shock, and these patients may not be suitable candidates for ICD therapy for that reason. Furthermore, the ventricular rhythms that occur during an episode of atrial fibrillation are inherently rapid and irregular, and certain Rxe2x80x94R interval sequences, such as a long-short Rxe2x80x94R interval sequence are particularly dangerous for shock timing. Overcoming these problems is a primary objective of the present invention.
The present invention is a method and apparatus for delivering atrial defibrillation therapy in which delivery of an atrial defibrillation shock pulse is preceded by ventricular pacing in order to decrease the intrinsic ventricular rhythm to a rate at which the atrial defibrillation shock pulse can be more safely delivered. In accordance with the invention, after atrial fibrillation is detected, a sequence of one or more ventricular pacing pulses is delivered at a rate intended to be above the intrinsic ventricular rate. After the last pacing pulse in the sequence is delivered, a compensatory pause is produced before the next intrinsic ventricular beat. The atrial defibrillation shock pulse can then be delivered synchronously with that beat if the Rxe2x80x94R interval is above a specified minimum value.